, according to a report by Joyce C. Abma, PhD, and Gladys M. Martinez, PhD, of the Division of Vital Statistics at the National Center for Health Statistics, Hyattsville, Md.
The percentage of female teens who had ever had sexual intercourse declined from 51% in 1988 to 42% in 2011-2015. For male teens, the percentage who were sexually experienced declined from 60% in 1988 to 44% in 2011-2015.
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Male teens’ condom use during their first sexual experiences increased from 71% in 2002 to 77% in 2011-2015. This plateau in male contraception is in part the result of various types of contraception for women being developed and widely distributed in the course of these years, such as intrauterine devices.
The report features the most recent data from the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), resulting in 4 years of interviews spanning 2011 through 2015 and including 2,047 female teens and 2,087 male teens aged 15-19 years (National Health Statistics Reports; no 104. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2017). Data also was abstracted from the 1988 and 1995 National Surveys of Adolescent Males, a national panel survey of male teens.
NSFG is currently the only source of ongoing data on the topics of sexual activity and contraceptive use for the total U.S. population of teenagers, paralleling the teen population whose pregnancy and birth rates are captured by birth certificates as part of the statistics of the National Center for Health Statistics. “Using data from the 2011-2015 NSFG and earlier NSFG surveys, this report provides an update of information on U.S. teenagers’ sexual activity and contraceptive use, thus helping to improve understanding of their risk of pregnancy,” said Dr. Abma and her associates. “This report … provides insights into the ways in which those determinants are changing with time, how they differ by sociodemographic groups, and what circumstances are most associated with them. The information can be used to monitor and understand trends in teen sexual behavior and contraception use.”
The 2011-2015 National Survey of Family Growth was conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics with the support and assistance of a number of other organizations and individuals. Interviewing and other tasks were carried out by the University of Michigan’s Survey Research Center and the Institute for Social Research under a contract with NCHS.
